One of the most inspiring anti-Nazi German heroes of World War 2 was Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a Lutheran pastor who vocally condemned Adolf Hitler’s euthanasia program and genocidal persecution of the Jews from the pulpit.
A Nazi resistance spy involved in smuggling Jews out of Nazi Germany, he was accused of being part of the July 20 plot to assassinate Hitler.
As a result, he was tried and hanged just days before the dictator himself took his own life in the final days of the Second World War.
Today he stands alongside Martin Luther King Jr as one of wall of martyrs statues outside Westminster Abbey. And now, Bonhoeffer is receiving the biopic treatment for the first time.
Daily Express caught up with writer-director Todd Komarnicki (Resistance, Elf, Sully) to ask what attracted him to the project and why this true story of bravery and sacrifice in the face of evil is more relevant than ever.
Todd, who has worked with Clint Eastwood and Mel Gibson over the years, first encountered Bonhoeffer in his early Twenties when he read his classic work, The Cost of Discipleship, as a young Christian.
The filmmaker told us: “It was so thought-provoking. I didn’t know his story at all. And when I was introduced to the life he actually lived beyond the highlights, the life he lived between the margins, I was magnetised. This is a kind of human being that draws everyone towards him, because he lived his life the way I believe we would all hope we would live if we were in life and death stakes. He stood up for others. He sacrificed everything that was personal and he did not waver. He wrestled, he had doubts, he had confusion, like any human being, but when the moment was upon him, he did not waver.”
The writer-director continued: “Part of the draw was the fact that it was an untold, true story about a human dealing with brutal adversity. The fact that he was on the front lines early on, standing up against Hitler; that he was singular in his church to do that. I was completely struck by something that had never been taught in America, that one of the first things Hitler did to consolidate power was to take over the churches. That’s just not coming up in our history books. We sort of start World War 2 around the time that we get militarily involved, and we have some skeletons in our closet around getting things wrong prior to that – it’s not really discussed in class enough. So here was a story that was just an untold gem. Certainly the German population knew the story, but it had not been made into a German film yet. So I thought, yeah, this guy lived a cinematic life, and it’s going to change the way people see the world.”
Although the director and distributor of Angel Studios are Christian, Todd was adamant: “This is not a faith-based film. This is a movie about a man of faith. And there’s a huge difference. This is in the vein of Chariots of Fire and A Man For All Seasons.” In a world of culture wars and the rising threat of authoritarianism, the filmmaker feels Bonhoeffer’s example of living a life of love is more relevant than ever.
He added: “Every day the media that we take in is telling us to choose a side, and when it comes to each side, I want to choose the side of humanity. I want to choose for my fellow man. I want to choose love, because I’m a firm believer that love is the only undefeated weapon in the history of the world. Many ideologies come and go, and whoever’s in charge thinks they’re going to be in charge forever. The fact is, only love is still around. The most important thing I can say is there’s never been a more important time to be intentionally loving. This battle that we keep fighting, this notion that we’re going to convince each other of something through rhetoric or proof, only makes us more entrenched and drives us further away from each other. So I want this next moment in history to be looked back upon as when it looked like there was no reason to choose love – those who did changed the world.”
Bonhoeffer will be out in UK and Irish cinemas from March 7, 2025. For more information and to book tickets click here.